Different
by Petra Megami Assari
Summary: Shonenai. Duo Maxwell has always been considered 'different' than everyone else. However, what if there are more differences than there seems? And what if those differences cause another pilot to be hurt, forcing his secrets into the open?


Petra: This is an old, old fic.  
Kati: She wrote this before I existed so that means it's crap, just to warn you.   
Petra: It is not! Selenay was a perfectly good muse! She just felt bad that someone else didn't have a muse so I got stuck with you! The difficult one!  
Kati: Yeah? Well, fuc-  
Petra: *takes a big gulp of pink lemonade* What were you saying, again?  
Kati: *eyes are extremely wide* Again! Again! *claps hands*  
Petra: *takes another sip* Do you think that's good?  
Kati: *nods vigorously* Good! Good!  
Petra: *laugh* Well, now that I have her under control, why don't you go read the story?  
Kati: Story! Story!  
  
DEDICATED: Our differences aren't deformities and they do not mean that we are lesser than another, they make us who we are and seperate us from the machines. They are beautiful. Remember: You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because you're all the same!  
WARNING: Slight angst and sap... oh, and shonen-ai!  
DISCLAIMER: Kati: *singing* No own! No own! We don't own! Anything! Or a ring! Even in spring! *starts to giggle insanely*  
Petra: *pats Kati on head* Good muse...  
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
Different  
  
"You told me there was magic in the woods. You said it so seriously, so honestly, that I had no choice but to believe you." -Ashura; Beltaine (GW)  
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
Different; Duo Maxwell had always been different from everybody else. He's always happy, never frowns or cries, and he's full of energy; he wears his waist-length hair in a braid. There are more, but those are the most distinguishing. There's more to Duo than meets the eye though, that distinguish him even further…  
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
"Maxwell!" the cry startled the dreamy household and when the enraged Chinese ran through the door, Duo hadn't even had a chance to stand up from the floor where he had been laying and watching t.v. Trowa and Quatre were sitting on the couch together; Quatre watching t.v. and Trowa reading a book. All three looked up while Heero continued to type on his laptop.  
  
"It wasn't me! It was Heero! Or Quatre! Or Trowa! Or Sally Poe! Or OZ!" The group stared at him for a moment in surprised amusement… well, at least Quatre did, Heero continued to ignore him and Trowa went right back to reading.   
  
"Who else would scatter feathers all over my bedroom?" This time, to everybody's surprise, Duo blushed a deep scarlet.   
  
"Oh… about that… sorry… meant to get it cleaned up… and all…" he stared at them a minute before self-consciously scratching his shoulder. "…I'll just go do that now…" and before anyone could say anything, he was scurrying out the door and towards Wufei's room.  
  
"What was that all about?" Quatre asked, watching as Duo's braid disappeared around the corner.   
  
Wufei looked just as puzzled as the rest of them and could only shrug in response.   
  
"Actually, he's always been rather strange," Trowa commented, looking up from his book. Heero's typing slowed as his mind was taken off what he was doing and switched to the conversation starting about Duo.  
  
Quatre laughed, a little uneasily, and replied, "And here I was thinking that I was the only one to notice."   
  
Wufei shook his head in agreement, "Like the way he drinks at least a gallon and a half of milk a day."  
  
"Don't remind me," Quatre almost moaned, "When my sister, Mary, sees the bill she's going to hunt me down and kill me! We're going through 11 or more gallons of milk a WEEK!!! That's more than forty bucks!!!"  
  
Wufei continued, "Did I mention the fact that's he eats like, what, three times his body weight? And he's not gaining any weight, I know, I made a slight comment about it and he said that he's always weighed the same. 'Fast metabolism' was his excuse." Quatre moaned again, obviously still thinking about his sister's reaction.   
  
"What about how he's always obsessed with being up high?" Trowa asked.   
  
Quatre looked faint, "Every time I see him balancing on a high ledge or climbing on the roof, I think I have a heart attack!"  
  
"He never takes his shirt off either," Heero said, startling the others. "He'll go to bed with it on and he'll only change it if he's alone or if you can't see him."  
  
"That would explain why someone who so obviously enjoys swimming won't go," Quatre mused out loud. "I saw him go swimming in the dark once, and then it was pitch black and I only knew it was him from his voice."  
  
"What was he saying?" Wufei asked.  
  
Quatre's eyes widened and he appeared almost embarrassed. "He wasn't saying anything… he was… singing…" His green-blue eyes became almost dreamy as he remembered it. "It was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard in my entire life…" He suddenly noticed that the other pilots were staring at him strangely and he blushed. "What?"  
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
That night Heero was typing on his laptop but his thoughts weren't on the data that sat in front of him, instead they lay on the boy that was lying on the bed reading a book. Heero felt somehow… jealous that Quatre had heard Duo sing when he hadn't. Somehow, he felt that this was something very special.   
  
"Duo," he suddenly said, startling the American pilot.  
  
"Yeah?" Duo asked, his bright smile again plastered on his face.  
  
"Will you sing for me?" Duo was obviously startled by the request and stared at him a long moment.   
  
"Why?" Duo asked, staring at Heero.  
  
"Because Quatre heard you once and, when he was talking about it… there was something on his face."   
  
Duo stared at Heero a long moment, trying to decide what to do, and then sighed, "Okay…"  
  
He sat up and closed his eyes… and sang, "On a beach dyed in twilight is an abandoned doll… 'If you lose your dreams everything's over,' murmured someone… Only wish… Suddenly, from the bottom of my consciousness… It's only life… The feelings that fire my passion… And now, fiercely, we can feel each other's bodies, each hidden pulse, the passion I struggled for, the wings I embraced… Take off to the sky. I have nowhere to return to, just wandering through this town. Without being able to become gentle, without knowing what I believe. Only peace… Your steady calmness… It's only love…. The cold past becoming warm…. And now, tenderly, in my heart we can share and comfort each deep sin. In this universe the future unwinds endlessly… Take off to the sky… And now, fiercely, we can feel each other's bodies, each hidden pulse, the passion I struggled for, the wings I embraced… Take off to the sky…"  
  
Heero had never heard anything so beautiful in his entire life… While Duo's normal voice had always seemed a little grating, Heero suddenly realized that it had been like that on purpose, but it made the Japanese wonder why the American had done so. After a moment he realized that a slim hand was waving back in front of his face and he looked dazedly back up.  
  
"Heero, are you okay?" Duo's voice was barely above a whisper and Heero felt himself becoming ensnared by an extremely close set of wide beautiful violet eyes. His eyes darted down to full lips and then darted back up, staring at the beautiful boy in front of him. Duo was a little nervous; Heero was giving him a strange look, as strange a look at the stoic teen could give, but it was still making Duo feel uncomfortable. Before Duo could open his mouth again, Heero suddenly bent forward and put a very chaste kiss on the American's boy's lips. He started to draw back but Duo followed the Japanese teen to continue the kiss, still just a simple press of lips against lips.  
  
Heero tentatively laid a gentle hand on the other boy's shoulder, scared of what he was doing, but unable to stop. At first he didn't notice the strange lump that his fingers lightly brushed against, but after a moment he noticed a slight twitching right beneath his fingertips and, still caught in the kiss that was flooding his senses, his hand moved down in reflex to calm the muscle. What he felt under the palm of his hand was something more than muscle, though, it was pointed and felt soft as though there were padding on top of it.  
  
With a startled gasp, Duo jerked backward and out of the Japanese's grasp, staring at him with wild-eyed fear. His right hand was grasping his shoulder as though in pain and his left was clutched tightly around his waist. Heero took a tentative step forward, wondering what happened but Duo just backed against the wall as though he were a caged animal, the same fear flickering in the violet depths.   
  
"Duo… are you okay…?" Heero asked and, though his heart told him to try to comfort the frightened boy, his mind realized that the American would bolt at any kind of contact. The boy didn't answer and Heero didn't want to push the American so he simply stepped away and to the side, watching as the American's eyes filled with surprise and then gratitude.   
  
"Thank you," Duo whispered as he rushed past Heero. Heero watched him go, confusion shining in his usually dull eyes.   
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
Duo ran along the hall, not even noticing the startled Quatre he passed. As soon as he got outside and he began to take deep breaths, bringing clean and clear air into his airless lungs. For a moment there, when Heero had been looking at his shoulder so questioningly, Duo had felt trapped, caged like a bird and hadn't been able to breath… now he stood outside the house, the world around him broad and bright, and found peace.  
  
He looked over his shoulder and, seeing no one at all, began to trudge off deep into the woods, walking with purpose but more lightly than ever before. The small, silent shadow that followed him went completely unnoticed. Duo walked over stones and brush, his bare feet seeming to feel no pain, as he scrambled between bushes, trees, and rocks to get to the small lake that was placed in the middle of a forest where they were staying.   
  
Once again, as he stopped about a foot from the lake, he looked around him and, once again, in his anxiety over what had just happened, Duo didn't notice the small shadow crouching a little above and to the left. After taking another nervous glance around, he crossed his arms and began to pull his shirt off…  
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
Quatre watched in confusion as Duo glanced around a third time, as though he were about to do something he didn't want anyone else to see. 'What's he doing?' Quatre wondered, as he watched as Duo pulled his tucked in shirt out and Quatre blushed, suddenly realizing that Duo was about to take a swim. As he turned away, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye and swung his head back around, his blue-green eyes widening as he gazed at what was standing in front of him.   
  
Duo was standing in a moonlit forest, the night sky reflecting on the smooth lake in front of him, and huge wings were folded and crossed across his back. For a moment Quatre thought that he was seeing things or that Duo was playing a joke on him… until he saw Duo pull off his pants, leaving only boxers on, and the golden-brown wings were spread skyward. Duo let out a sigh and let his head fall back, his wings spanning between four to five feet. Quatre rubbed his eyes slightly, not quite believing what he was seeing, and in that moment he felt himself slipping from the branch.   
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
Duo turned quickly, wings spanning out as he turned around quickly as something heavy fell out of the tree. The thing landed, then didn't move, and Duo cautiously moved toward it. The glint of moonlight against gold made his eyes widen.  
  
"Quatre?" he whispered and then, in a single smooth move, he was crouching beside his fellow gundam pilot. "Quatre…? Oh shit, Quatre, you gotta say something to me!" The Deathscythe pilot moved as though to touch the shorter boy's face and then thought better of it. "Oh, fuck, Quatre, you can't do this to me… please, say something, anything!" Carefully, he placed his hand about a millimeter from the blonde's lips, holding his breath for any sign of life. A warm, moist wind brushed lightly against the palm of his hand and then left, only to return a moment later but he still could have broken something. He stared at the crumpled black on the ground that was his shirt and pants. It would take far too long to get his shirt back on, it usually took up to an hour to get his wings crammed in, aligned perfectly with the puffs on his shirt and pants, and by then his blonde friend might have gone into shock.   
  
It didn't take even a second for him to decide what to do and he had pulled on his pants and had taken off, praying that Quatre would stay safe. He was running through the woods, winged tucked tightly to his body, jumping over logs and bushes, and he almost sighed from relief when he saw the lights from the house through the trees. "Heero!!! Heero!! Trowa!!! Wufei!!! ANYONE!!! HELP!!!"  
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
"…HELP!!!" Heero's head perked up from where it had been leaning against the door, wondering what he had done wrong.   
  
"Duo? DUO!!!" Heero was sprinting down the stairs past a startled Wufei before his brain had even processed the fact that he was doing so. Just as he had leaped over the railing of the stair and landed, the door burst open. Duo stood in the doorway, his face as white as a sheet and the light making his face appear incredibly thin. "Heero! Quatre!!! He fell from a tree and he's breathing but barely and I don't know if I should move him or not!!! Please, oh god this is all my fault!!!" Duo continued to babble and Heero noticed that his irises were dilated.   
  
'Shit! He's gone into shock!' Heero thought running to the door and grabbing Duo by the shoulders, noticing in a corner of his mind that the boy's shirt was off. "Duo! Duo, look at me!" Then, very slowly, looking Duo right in his wide violet eyes, Heero stated, "Duo, focus on my voice. Now, listen to me. I need you to lead me to Quatre, if you go into shock Quatre will just lie out there. Now, can you lead me to him?" Duo nodded numbly. "Okay, let me get a flashlight…"   
  
He was stopped as Duo hastily grabbed his arm, "Don't leave me… I want you to be here when they find out…" Heero looked at him questioningly but Duo looked down, hiding his eyes behind his long bangs.   
  
"What is it?" Trowa asked, appearing behind Heero.   
  
"Quatre's hurt," Heero felt the older boy tense. "Go get us a flashlight, Duo's about to go into shock and he won't let me leave." Trowa was gone and back before a minute had passed, holding a large flashlight. Duo was staring at his three friends in front of him and then, with a resigned sigh and a last squeeze to Heero's hand which had been holding in an almost strangle-hold grip, he turned around… and waited for the gasps which were quick to follow.   
  
Heero, mouth open still from the gasp, was staring at the back of the boy he had thought he knew, and at the wings that were folded neatly over shoulders and back. "Duo…" The Japanese boy saw the American's back tense at his whispered name and then, forcibly, relax.   
  
"We don't have time to talk right now, let's just go," he said, and then took off, running faster than Heero had ever seen him run. Heero, the perfect soldier himself, had trouble keeping up with the other pilot. When they got the lake they found the boy bending over the Sandrock pilot, his wings spread out and protecting the other from the wind.   
  
Heero walked over and the wing lifted up, letting him into the protective hovel that he had created. "It's all my fault…" Duo was whispering, his voice more musical than Heero had ever heard, tinkling with bells and stars. "He saw my… … and he fell… because of me!" There was such pain in Duo's voice that Heero couldn't help himself and he put a comforting hand on the other's shoulder, rubbing the tense muscles slightly, feeling the soft brush of wings against the back of his hands.   
  
"Duo… it's not your fault… no one blames you for keeping your… wings… a secret… but, Duo, now is not the time," he said, his voice low so that only Duo could hear.  
  
Duo looked up at him, violet eyes almost black with grief and he nodded numbly. "Wufei," Heero said, turning to the Chinese boy who was now on the balls of his feet, gently testing the bones in the Arabian's neck, limbs, and back. "What's the verdict?"  
  
"I don't think that he has anything broken, though he has a nasty bump on his head, which is probably what knocked him out. It isn't bad enough to be a concussion, though." Heero watched Trowa looking stony but obviously worried. It was strange that Quatre hadn't yet noticed the other pilot's obvious affection when it was very obvious how the Heavyarms pilot felt. Then of course, Quatre was the most innocent out of the group of pilots and that would explain why he saw nothing in the small squeezes to his hand that Trowa was constantly giving the smaller pilot and why he didn't seem to notice that Trowa only smiled for him and no one else…  
  
"So, it's safe to bring him to the house?" Trowa asked and, at Wufei's nod, picked up the small, blonde boy. "Come on, let's go." Trowa began to walk, Wufei and Heero following behind. Heero was halfway through the forest before he noticed that Duo wasn't with them. 'Would he run? He might…' Panicking, Heero stumbled through the dark back the small lake… and then stopped…  
  
Duo's clothes were piled on a dry rock by the lake and the boy himself was in the middle of the lake, the water up to his waist. He was singing softly to himself, too softly for Heero to hear and his long hair was undone and pooled around him like the water itself. His skin was sparkled with stars and, suddenly, his wings, which had been folded behind his back, flew up, causing water to fall to around him like a million shooting stars.   
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
"Heero!" Duo cried in surprised, as he noticed that silent boy watching him. "Heero, what're you doing?!" The boy didn't answer him, just continued looking at him with that unexplainable look on his face. "Heero?" Duo called just once more and, when he still didn't answer, he began to walk out, using his wings to cover himself. This made the other boy break out of his trance and move slightly, as Duo turned around and began to pull on his clothes. When he turned back he was fully dressed except for his shirt, which he held in his hand. Heero gave him a questioning look. "It usually take an hour or so to stuff my wings in my shirt, even with the puffy sleeves and pants."  
  
Heero smiled slightly. "I always wondered why you wore such strange pants…" Duo laughed, his wings spreading out in reflex, and he stopped.  
  
"I guess I'll be leaving tomorrow, huh?" he asked, stepping past Heero…  
  
Or at least trying to, as Heero stepped in front of him. "Duo… I still… care about you… you're still the same person… just… more… different…"  
  
"Different! Weird more like it!" he laughed, tears appearing his eyes.   
  
"No…" Heero stepped closer, placing his hands on the American's shoulders. They were still damp from his 'bath' and warm to the touch. "…Different… as in… more beautiful than before… more beautiful than I thought possible." And Heero leaned in and kissed Duo.   
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
Duo leaned into the kiss and couldn't help but think to himself, 'I'm kissing my dream… and it's better than anything I ever imagined.' Heero moved his hands down to the point where his wings connected with his back and gently rubbed, causing Duo to start in surprise and back away.  
  
"I'm sorry," Heero whispered, his eyes so incredibly alive at the moment that Duo thought he would drown in the dark blue depths.   
  
"It's not that, it's just… I've never had anyone touch me there before… and it was…" Duo paused for a moment and then smiled, the most touching smile Heero had ever seen. "It was…. different…" Heero smiled at him and Duo thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. As Heero pulled him in for another kiss, Duo asked against Heero's lips, "Heero… how long will you smile at me?" He couldn't help himself; this was just too good to be true. When would it end… because he didn't want it to end ever…  
  
Heero paused for a moment thinking, lips almost touching, and then replied with a question, "Do you love me?" Duo chewed on his bottom lip. "Do you?" Heero asked, his hands lightly massaging the winged boy's shoulder.  
  
"Yes," Duo whispered.  
  
Before Duo could ask if Heero loved him in return, the Wing pilot asked, "How long will you love me?" Duo refused to say anything, looking at the ground. The Japanese boy tipped the American's head back up. "I will…" Heero wanted to say that four letter word but he couldn't, instead he said, "I will smile at you, as long as you love me."  
  
Duo looked up at Heero, the tears in his eyes shining like stars. "And if I love you forever and beyond…?"  
  
Heero simply smiled…  
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you that wish it, DUE TO MY SPORADIC postings, I am offering you, the readers, A MAILING LIST to sign up to. When I finally UPDATE, I will SEND OUT AN EMAIL informing those of you that are on the list that I have finally updated. I need you to EMAIL me, telling that you wish to sign up, and whether it's for ORIGINAL FICTION or FANFICTION. I WILL NOT accept those people that ask to be up on it in a review because I can't be sure that email is real. The mailing list will ALSO OFFER the TITLES of those works that I am posting, the COUPLES (if any) that are in it, which FANDOM it is from, and whether it is a SEQUEL to anything.   
  
-._.-._.-._.-._  
  
Petra: So, what'd you think?  
Kati: *groan*  
Petra: Isn't it cute?  
Kati: *clutches head*  
Petra: Well, go review, you know you want to!  
Kati: *weakly* Help me...  
  
"I dream of a day when I can open my eyes, and my dreams won't disappear."   
-Rose Marie Ledam  
  
~Petra Megami Assari~  
*The Gentle Tiger Goddess* 


End file.
